Developmental risk factors distinguish violent sexual offending, violent non-sexual offending and versatile violent offending in adulthood

Abstract

The continuity of developmental risk factors from childhood into adolescence to predict criminal adult offending has not been investigated. From a developmental and life-course perspective, the issue is of both theoretical and practical importance, as understanding the long-term impact of early life experiences on adult outcomes that carry forward across major developmental periods can assist clinicians with the identification of targets for early intervention and prevention. The aim of the present study was to examine the extent to which childhood and adolescent risk factors distinguish among three offender subgroups in a sample of adult male offenders. The results indicated that the groups were more clearly distinguished on adolescent risk factors, giving greater prominence to proximal than distal predictors. As well, from a dose-response perspective, the pure sex offenders showed the most adverse developmental history and were differentiated from both the versatile violent sex offenders and the violent non-sex offenders.

Keywords:

• Developmental risk factors
• childhood
• adolescent
• sexual offending
• violent offending

Notes

1. Unfotunately, due to a small sample size, we were unable to examine the continuity of offending across the two developmental periods within the same individuals. As a result, the present study is more of a conceptual replication of the Wanklyn et al.’s (2012) study with a cross-sectional, rather than a true longitudinal, design. We do note, however, that 53% of the adolescent PSOs (8/15) offended sexually in adulthood (as either PSOs or VVSOs), whereas only 25% of the adolescent VVSOs (4/16) offended sexually in adulthood and 11.3% of the adolescent VNSOs (14/124) offended sexually in adulthood (χ ²(4) = 33.33, p = .001). These results speak to the higher rate of continuity among adolescent offenders who might be considered specialists.

2. The coding schemes included both risk and protective factors. However, due to a low rate of occurrence among the protective factors, these variables were dropped from the analyses and so are not reported on here.

3. Inappropriate sexual behaviour reported in adolescence included acts documented in the offenders’ files by individuals known to the person, such as parents, social workers and group home staff. These acts did not include those that led to a criminal charge and so did not overlap with an offender status.

4. These figures are higher than those reported in Reingle (2012) and may reflect the unique sample in this study. The children’s mental health centre that operated the group homes received a greater number of adolescent sex offenders than other group homes in Toronto, Canada because of the availability of mental health treatment services. At the same time, our figures are in line with Lussier et al. (2012). The PSO and VVSO groups are similar to the high-rate slow desister (HRSD) and adolescence-limited (AL) groups, respectively, reported in their study of juvenile sex offenders. Lussier et al. found that the 60% and 2% of their HRSD and AL groups, respectively, offended in both adolescence and adulthood. As well, between 75% and 100% of the AL group followed non-sexual offending trajectories (although without specific reference to violent non-sexual offences), whereas between 0% and 25% of the HRSD group followed non-sexual offending trajectories.